The Top 10 Habits of Millionaires You Need to Know

Following These Tips Will Make You a Millionaire

I don’t like clickbait title and sure you don’t either but my information is backed by a self-millionaire by the age of 33.

Self-made millionaire Keith Cameron Smith wrote The Top 10 Habits of Millionaires along with other several other books. Previously I wrote an abbreviated version of the Top 10 Habits but I will go into more details here.

Keith gave three main reasons for writing this book that he wanted to share.

First, he believed he had to be responsible to share information lessons from other millionaires he knew as well as his own life experiences.

Second, he felt he had a purpose to share these lessons with others. When someone reached out to him about how influential something he wrote inspired them based on what he wrote.

Lastly, Keith wanted to leave a legacy for his children. Keith wants his kids to look back at what he has taught them when they pick up the book where he shared his lessons with them.

Overall, I have read many investing and financial books. I have to say this was a very good book and an easy read with some basic principles that you can easily adapt and follow.

Who Exactly is Keith Cameron Smith?

Keith Cameron Smith is an entrepreneur at heart and was always selling items since he was a kid. Keith sold candy in grade school. In high school, he found golf balls at a golf course and sold second hand gold balls to a golf store. Then he failed to sell freon for cars and moved on to buying furniture at auctions before selling them at flea markets.

Following these ventures, Keith moved on to real estate investing, writing books, and became a motivational speaker.

The Top 10 Habits

With the first habit, this is key to help identify your priorities if you truly want to be a millionaire. Following this habit, the order of the habits nine to one there is no specific order. Your own order may vary depending on your goals and progress but they are all equally important.

Always remember that success is a journey as well as a destination and the road is always under construction.

Habit 10 — Millionaires think long term

Keith said that there are five different groups of people in society. There are the poor, very poor, middle class, rich, and the very rich.

Very poor people think day to day whereas poor people think week to week.

The middle class think month to month while the rich think year to year.

Very rich people think decade to decade. I encourage you to sit back and think for a moment.

How do you think about the things you need to do in life? Do you think day to day, month to month or year to year?

A lot of planning needs to be part of your game plan if you want to be a millionaire. Millionaires think long term not what is going on tomorrow.

Keith encourages you to set goals and plan for them over a longer period of time. This forces you to think about your finances, investing, and financial responsibility.

Where do you want to be 5, 10, 20 years or more down the road?

Are you content with where you are today?

If not, what do you need to do to change your future self?

Millionaires think long term.

Habit 9 — Millionaires talk about ideas

Millionaires spend much of their time talking about ideas rather than things or people. The middle class spends much of their time talking about people and things rather than ideas.

These are powerful statements.

Big people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about other people.

Granted you may not change your thought process overnight, but it will take some time. Many millionaires spend a lot of their time thinking about new ideas. While working on projects they think about other ideas.

Millionaires think about ideas and make things happen. Sometimes to reach the next level, you need to change your mindset.

Talk about how something is possible rather than impossible. Say you can do something instead of can’t. Use the phrase I will instead of I should. Lastly, stop complaining. Complaining gets you nowhere.

The more you complain, the more issues you’ll see you can complain about. Stop cursing yourself and practice more forms of gratitude. Focus on what you’re thankful for. Life lessons can teach you a lot.

Millionaires talk about ideas.

Habit 8 — Millionaires embrace change

As many of us are going through the corona virus, you are possibly experiencing some change in your everyday routine.

People like positive change but the virus is creating a lot of negative change.

The middle class tends to assume most of the changes are negative. Millionaires assume all change, positive and negative, benefits them.

Learning to deal with change is a must for millionaires. They embrace change because they know it brings an opportunity for growth. Insecure people don’t like change. Confident people welcome change. Confidence is acquired through hard work and preparation. A lot of time working on oneself creates more confidence in a person.

You are not trying to compete against someone but only against yourself. A confident person knows they can handle any situation and believe they can do whatever they want to do.

Millionaires embrace change.

Habit 7 — Millionaires take calculated risks

The middle class is trapped in the rat race working from paycheck to paycheck because they don’t take risks. This doesn’t mean blindly taking a risk but millionaires take a calculated risk. Taking a risk brings fear whether you in the middle class or a millionaire. A millionaire educates themself before taking a risk to overcome their fear. The millionaire take a risk and understand the consequences if they fail.

Keith’s mentor, Nido Qubein, taught him three questions to ask before taking on a risk:

What’s the best thing that could happen?

What’s the worst thing that could happen?

What’s the most likely thing that could happen?

If you can live with the worst thing that could happen and it gets you closer to your goals, then go for it. If you can’t live with the worst thing that could happen and it doesn’t get you closer to your goals, then don’t go for it.

Carefully think through before taking on a new venture.

Millionaires take on calculated risks.

Habit 6 — Millionaires continually learn and grow

Keith wrote that most millionaires he knows spend their time reading. Many even have a large collection of books.

One of the most successful investors of our time, Warren Buffett, reads approximately 500 pages a day. Bill Gates reads 50 books in a year. Both of these men are on the Forbes list of richest people year after year.

Books are not expensive and contain a lot of valuable information. I am not referring to the latest romance novel either. There are hundreds of autobiographies of the wealthy, finance, investing, and business books available.

Millionaires continually learn and grow.

Habit 5 — Millionaires work for profits

People work for wages while millionaires work for profits. A person who works for wages, has enough to live on and it is hard to become financially free. Millionaires understand this so they work for profits. Profits are the result of buying something and then selling it for a higher price.

Many millionaires are in the business of sales. It is estimated that 90% of people who make an income over $100,000 are in sales.

All of Keith’s millionaire friends and mentors work for profits, not wages.

Millionaires work for profits.

Habit 4 — Millionaires believe they must be generous

Keith shared a story that he purchased an item with a $10 bill and the clerk gave him back $5 and some change. Because of his generosity, Keith gave the clerk the $5 bill as a tip. The clerk was amazed and thanked Keith. She didn’t understand why she received a $5 tip for an item that cost less than $5.

Millionaires believe they must be generous.

Habit 3 — Millionaires have multiple sources of income

The more sources of income you develop, the more likely you will become a millionaire.

Keith gave an example of a fisherman. If the fisherman, had two fishing poles in the water, there is a greater chance he’ll catch more fish compared to if he only had one fishing pole.

The same idea applies to income.

Millionaires generate income from multiple sources.

In the form of passive income, millionaires employ their teams to earn income. Employing a team takes time and the millionaire has to provide the leadership and trust to get the teams to work together.

Millionaires have multiple sources of income.

Habit 2 — Millionaires focus on increasing their networth

You may have heard the saying work smarter, not harder.

Focusing on your networth is smart. Focusing on your paycheck is working harder. Millionaires work hard in the beginning to create their networth. The middle class is trapped in the rat race. The rat race is to get up, go to work, pay bills, get up, go to work, and pay bills.

Millionaires get up, do what they love, spend time with their families, donate to charitable causes, travel, and look for ways to add to their networth.

Networth is Assets minus Liabilities.

Millionaires look at assets that have value and earn them a passive income.

A middle class person may have some assets that provide value but these assets don’t product passive income.

Liabilities are things that you owe money for. These can be your mortgage, car payment, credit card debt, school, and personal loans.

Subtract the value of the things you own (your assets) minus the things that you owe money on (your liabilities). This then gives you your networth.

Assets — Liabilities = Networth

To make the jump from paycheck to passive income, is not easy. A lot of self-study and new knowledge is required to learn how to produce assets that generate income.

Some ideas are to start a business, join a network marketing company, or invest in real estate or stocks.

Millionaires focus on increasing their networth.

Habit 1 — Millionaires ask themselves empowering questions

Initially, this habit may not seem important but you really look deeply into the question, this could be a very powerful question to ask yourself. Learn to ask questions that stretch you beyond your current level of experience.

For example, “How can I double my income this year?” or “What can I do to pay my bills this month?”

Both questions require some thought and mental energy. Empowering questions force you to ask what can you do. A disempowering question asks what can’t you do and why are things so hard.

When you ask yourself empowering questions, you become a powerful person. These questions force you to reach your full potential and determine the results you get in life.

The middle class asks questions that make them poor while the rich ask themselves questions that make them rich.

Keith asks nine empowering questions that I want you to think about:

What kind of person do I want to be?

Why do I want to be that kind of person?

How can I become that kind of person?

What do I want to do?

Why do I want to do it?

How can I do it?

What do I want to have?

Why do I want to have it?

How can I create it?

Your answers to these questions must be clear and specific. Millionaires know what they want.

Millionaires ask themselves empowering questions.

What habits do you need to work on?

Tom Handy is a top Investment and Bitcoin writer on Medium, and father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. Tom is the top Yelper in his community and a top Google Guide. He’s on several social media channels and you can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1 and Instagram @tomhandy1.

This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.